Jaitley rubbishes Mallya's claim; says never gave appointment for meeting

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday rubbished Vijay Mallya's statement of having met him before flying out to London in 2016, saying he never gave him an appointment since 2014 but the fugitive liquor baron misused his position as Rajya Sabha MP to accost him in Parliament.

In a Facebook blog, Jaitley said Mallya's statement was "factually false" and "does not reflect truth".

"Since 2014, I have never given him any appointment to meet me and the question of his having met me does not arise," he wrote.

But Mallya being a Member of Rajya Sabha, occasionally attended the House.

"He misused that privilege on one occasion while I was walking out of the House to go to my room. He paced up to catch up with me and while walking uttered a sentence that 'I am making an offer of settlement'.

"Having been fully briefed about his earlier 'bluff offers', without allowing him to proceed with the conversation, I curtly told him 'there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers'," Jaitley said.

The Finance Minister said he did not even "receive" the papers that he was holding in his hand.

"Besides this one sentence exchange where he misused his privilege as a Rajya Sabha Member, in order to further his commercial interest as a bank debtor, there is no question of my having ever given him an appointment to meet me," he added.

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